Friday, December 5, 2008

I've commented before on the general lameness of the current bunch of pirates who are roaming the waters off Somalia. They've abandoned the hit and run tactics that made the careers of Calico Jack Rackman, Black Bart Roberts, and Blackbeard. Instead, this new breed seems to like taking hostages and holding onto the ships until insurance companies pay up. Take, for example, the case of the MV Faina, the Ukranian cargo ship that is carrying military equipment such as tanks, missle launchers, and machine guns. Pirates have been sitting on that ship for over two months now, and have lowered their initial demand of $35 million a number of times.

Meanwhile a pirate "mother ship" was sunk by the Indian Navy. I didn't even know they had one!

But this week's news has brought word that piracy has truly become sad and pathetic. 2 small boats attempted to hijack a cruise ship off the coast of Yemen this past weekend. The cruise ship OUTRAN the boats!

Let me say that again. The pirate attack craft were outrun by a cruise ship. You can read about it here.